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The Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, is pleased to see that the environmental levy scheme on plastic shopping bags which takes effect today (July 7) commenced smoothly.
After visits to a supermarket chain in the morning and a personal health and beauty store at noon today, Mr Yau said the smooth implementation of the environmental levy scheme was the result of joint efforts of the retail trade, green-conscious consumers and the Administration.
"Things seem to be going very smoothly. From what I heard at the retail outlets, seven to eight out of 10 people walking into supermarkets brought their own shopping bags," he said.
He said the public response was encouraging and was a good start.
"The environmental levy scheme aims to create a direct economic incentive to encourage members of the public to switch to reusable shopping bags. By so dong, they could help reduce the indiscriminate use of plastic shopping bags," he added.
From 7 am to 7 pm today, EPD had received 101 general enquiries, mostly on the range of retail outlets covered under the scheme.
Under the scheme, chain or large supermarkets, convenience stores, personal health and beauty product stores are required to charge 50 cents for each plastic shopping bag provided to customers.
To further facilitate the implementation of the scheme, EPD has put in place an ambassador programme to assist the retail trade. Some 20 ambassadors are stationed in these retail outlets to help out customers on the spot.
A dedicated hotline (tel. 3187 0333) has been in operation to handle enquiries from the public. A dedicated website (http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/psb/en/index.html) has also been launched to provide public with detailed information on the levy scheme, including a register of registered retailers and its registered outlets.
With the passage of the relevant legislation, EPD has launched a comprehensive publicity campaign on the environmental levy scheme in the last few months. The campaign adopts multiple channels to reach out to the public, including television, radio, newspapers, internet, mass transport, shopping malls, public and private housing estates.
The campaign focuses not only on the details of the levy scheme, but also the key message of "Bring Your Own bag".
Ends/Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Issued at HKT 20:25
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